Instrument for surgical operations



May 25, 1954 M. WEIHMANN 2,679,249

INSTRUMENT FOR SURGICAL OPERATIONS Filed Aug. 5, 1952 I NVE N70,?

'MA XiMiLiANO h/E/HNANN Patented May 25, 1954 UNITED STATES rem OFFICEClaims priority, application Mexico October 5, 1951 4 Claims.

The present invention relates in general to instruments for surgicaloperations and particularly to surgical pliers with a knife incorporatedtherein, for making cuts without causing hemorrhages, and refers stillmore particularly to certain useful improvements in pliers having aknife incorporated therein, whereby may be elfected bloodlessenucleations or any out without hemorrhage, in surgical operations.

As is known to all surgeons and persons familiar with the art ingeneral, upon cutting veins, blood vessels, etc., copious hemorrhagesare produced, which it is difficult to avoid and which oblige thesurgeon to act under special conditions which are almost alwaysunfavorable, particularly in certain instances or surgical interventionsuch for example as the enucleation of an eye. In this specific case,the central blood vessels usually bleed copiously as soon as the opticalnerve is cut, and this hemorrhage obliges the surgeon to speed up asmuch as possible the last phases of the operation. To avoid suchhemorrhage, the

most logical thing would be to compress the optical nerve with pliersbefore cutting it, but it is not possible to construct pliers of a sizeor nature such as to leave sufficient space in the orbit for introducingtherewith the scissors or half-moon knife.

To overcome said difliculties, I have conceived the present instrumentfor surgical operations, consisting of special pliers provided with aguillotine on one of the blades so that at the time of compressing thenerve, vein, or blood vessel, it may be cut with the same instrument.

In view of the foregoing, the principal object of the invention is toprovide a surgical instrument for operations which allows of effecting abloodless enucleation or any other surgical inter vention wherein it beimportant to produce a hemostatic action simultaneously with the cut, towhich end this instrument comprises pliers on one of the blades of whicha sliding knife has been adapted with a guillotine.

These and other details, features and advantages of the invention willbe made clearly evident in the course of the following description aslikewise in the drawings annexed in illustration thereof, the samereference characters serving in said drawings to indicate the same partsin the four figures shown.

In said drawings:

Fig. 1 is an elevational front view of a pair of surgical pliers havinga knife incorporated and built in accordance with the present invention.

Fig. 2 shows a projection of the same instrument for surgical use, ofFig. 1, but in profile or side elevation, the displacement of the knifeincorporated in the holding pliers being shown in broken lines.

Fig. 3 is a detail of the pliers in open position, partially broken awayand in longitudinal section at their ends, more clearly to show thedisposition of the cutting knife which acts as a guillotine, and

Fig. 4 is also a detail of the same surgical instrument projected fromthat of the preceding figure but showing the holding pliers closed, thedisplacement of the knife or guillotine being shown in broken lines.

Before describing in detail and specifically the surgical instrument ofmy invention, as shown in the attached drawings, I wish it to be clearlyunderstood that the drawings illustrate enunciatively and by no means ina limitational manner one of the preferred ways of carrying out theinvention without the latters being limited to the specific detailsillustrated and described, and particularly that the surgical pliers maybe of any known class or form. Therefore recourse may be had to suchvariations and modifications as may become or be considered necessary orconvenient in practice, without departing from the principles and sphereof the invention and always within the scopeof the claims annexed tothisrdescription.

As illustrated in the attached drawings, the surgical instrument of theinvention comprises the usual curved pliers it, the arms or jaws H and12 of which are provided with longitudinal grooves l3, which serve as aguide or track for the knife l4, which'is actuated by means of a handle15 having eyes or hoops, to which it is secured by means of screw l6.This knife M will be described in detail later.

The arms ar jaws II and I2 of pliers It, provided with longitudinalgrooves l3 wherein slides knife !4, have specially formed ends since theend of the pressure jaw I2 has an extension H, which spans the width ofthe two jaws combined and precisely overlaps end l8 of adjacent jaw H,as clearly seen in Fig. 1 of the attached drawings. The end Id ofpressure member or jaw H is cut at right angles as seen in said figure.It should be mentioned that between the cut end of mem her or jaw H andthe lower end of extension ll of jaw l2, there is a small space orseparation I 9 through which the blood vessel, nerve or vein to besectioned passes. This space or separation may also be seen in Figs. 1and 4 of the drawings.

On the arm of the jaw l2 and near axis 26) of pliers Ill, there is asmall bolt or stud 2| having an enlarged head.

Knife l4 has in its central portion a slot 22 in a longitudinaldirection, said slot ending in a circular perforation 23 to permitpassage of the head of bolt 2|. In this way, said bolt 2| acts as aguide and limits the sliding movement of blade M. This blade M has ablade portion 24 near its end and terminates in a hook-like guillotineportion' 25 which has an exceedingly sharp edge portion 26 (Fig. 3).

When knife I4 is at the end of its stroke, that is when bolt 2| abutswith the upper end of slot 22 of said knife, hook-like guillotineportion 25 of knife I4 lies in the lateral portionl'l of arm or jaw 12,and upon pulling :on said knife by means of the handle IE, to make-itslide longitudinally in the grooves i3 in arms or jaws I! and I2, thesharp edge portion 26 passes along said grooves 13, easily cutting theblood vessel nerve, or vein, which has been clamped by means of the jawsof pliers l0.

The-handling or operation ofthe instrument {is very-simple. In. the case:of enucleating an eye,

which we have been taking as an example, one proceeds as follows: Beforestarting =theinter vention, one closes the pliers to aconvenientextent-and introduces the knife A i into the space formedbylongitudinal grooves 43in jaws H and H, until .guillotineportion z firegisters with' the extension H of pressure jaw 12. After resecting theextrinsic muscles, one .opens the pliersand penetrates intdthe orbitwith them, in such a way that the optical nerve is pressed or clampedbetween members cr jaws'll and i 2. Then one which remain in position,insuringl'the'hemostasis.

Subsequently the eyeball is removed and the operation is contini le'd inthe usual manner',.wi th- I out the presence of a hemorrhageoriginating'the drawbacks aforementioned.

'Thespreserit'instrument is so constructedthat thetraumati'zed surfaceof "the stump "is visible;

tion, what I consider as new and gdesir'eto obtain by Letters"Patent is:

nected with said blade for-sli'ding said blade 1ongitudina-lly of saidjaws.

2. A surgical instrument as defined in claim 1 wherein said plierscomprise a stud having an enlarged head/said stud being positionedadjacent the pivotal connection of said pliers, said knife having a slotbetween said blade and said handle with ,a'n-enlarged end in said slotwhereby said knife may be removably mounted on said pliers by passingsaid stud through the enlarged end of said slot, said grooves openingthrough the corresponding sides of said jaws to permit the insertionorremoval of said blade therein when theknifeis mounted on .or removedfrom said stud.

I being spaced slightly 'from the lateral extension 3. Asurgicaliinstrument'as defined in claim 2 wherein one o'i'sa-id'jaws hastalateral extension on its freeend precisely overlapping -the free endof the other of saidjaws, the free end of said otherjaw'beingperpendicular to itsllen'gth and on said one jaw.

4. A surgical-instrument asdefined 'in claim 3 wherein said knifebladecom'prises .a shank portion nestedwithin .the groove of said onejaw and r a hook-dike guillotine .Iportion :spanning said Y'grooves,said la'teral extension having a "groove j in communication with thegroove in its "supportpulls on thekni'felby means of the handle 15 andsaid knife cuts with great easethe' optical nerve, v whereuponthekni'feis drawn'out of .thepliers ing jaw for receiving said hook-likeguillotine portion to free the space between said extension and theen'dfof the Tether jaw;

.References --.Cited in the file of this ,patent UNITED STATES 'PATENTSNumber Name Date 352,245 Hullhorst Nov.9, 1886 1,918,700 Ll-Iarris 'July18, 1933 2,288,445 Frizell J-une30, 1942

